Best Values for the money. various catagories.

I checked out the Fusion, G6 and Sonata sedans, and to me, most for money(I should say) is Hyundai. No leather for the G6 sedan, at any price.No 8 way seat adjusters...on LX, on sale, for about 19-20K,(man, that saves the front part of my legs on long drivers, being able to lower/raise that front part of the lower seat cushion, especially since the seat cushions these days seem sort of short on length).No tilting headrests.No auto manual shifter(fusion I tested did not have one. Is this available on Fusion?).Among other items. Yes, LX has that telescopic steering column, and the adjustable brake pedals, etc, like others have.

So, I dunno. Sonata had 235HP, 221 for Fusion, and 200HP for G6 sedan.

Add the warranty that last for ever.

Difficult for us to justify buying a vehicle that has less content for same msrp(on sale, or not)> they are all about 1000 apart, on any given day/sale.

I think G6 does not have leather? At any price.

The G6 coupe looks good, but no hatch, so to me, it has no advantage over a sedan.

Caliber: here's another vehicle. great at 15,899 or so, with SE, automatic and cruise. Add sunroof,etc, you are forced to the mid level model, which is 2K more before adding any other options, like sunroof.That alone could make it about 2,750 more, where as if it were available as an option on the base SE, it would only cost around 16,600 or so, still a bargain. HHR, is it better, on sale? It seems shorter on headroom with sunroof.I dunno.

You get the idea.

I would like something else, but when i compared the std and available options list to Hyundai.....I dunno.

Hmmm, maybe when Geely or Visionary vehicles(malcholm bricklin's Chery company) get here, and 4-5 years under their belts, we can all get 40K type cars for 25K?

Comments

For the 19,535 priced out for what i want, it appears Suzuki has the new Grand Vitara for under 19K, V6, 185HP?Have not looked into it very much, other than the ad/msrp.

Again, what would you consider a great value in certain classes of vehicle, and too much for one?

Caliber with 300HP, rumored to be 23K msrp is a bargain,maybe best buy of any similar crossover, if it is true.172HP Rt for nearly 21K? Compared to this 300HP turboed version> Not such a good deal?

It also depends on MPG, if that is what you are looking for, or just a useful vehicle , for low price(the under 16K Caliber is a good choice).

Best, New& Improved, Worlds greatest, etc, in advertising is called "Puffery", if i recall correctly. Just words they use to garner your attention to an ad or whatever.

Anyhow, to your, what is a best value? Content/price combo(of course, gotta last awhile, too, otherwise price/content are worthless). MPG?"What's currently cool"(or, as they used to say," Trying to keep up with the Joneses").Resale value( lot of people drive cars 3 years, and dump them, I have found out).We Try to pay ours off, and maybe keep them 1 year after pay off, or longer.

My office manager looked over the same class of cars and bought a brand new Hyundai Sonota since it was the cheapest. When she asked me, I told her to speak to the service manager and get everything they would do if any problems in writing as she could be spending considerable time there.

Well you guessed it, this morning traveling on the highway with the babies in the car and without a warning light ever coming on, the car just died. Well she had to wait for the flatbed for hours, then someone to pick her up, when she finally made it in 6 hours later I found out about it. She said they had found a progblem with the electronics and the altenator and the battery were toast for sure. So the "most for the money" is not always the "best value".....

Hmmm, let me take a crack at this. I have test driven or rented a bunch of different models in the last 6-12 months, so I have one or two opinions on this subject.

Subcompacts: best value here, I think is not quite here yet. Once the Fit arrives, assuming it is about $13K for the base model as expected, I think that will be the number one. As for right now, the xA is the best value if you are spending $14K or so, whereas at the $10-12K mark I think it is the Accent, just because of the warranty and the overall driving experience. The Aveo comes close, but no cigar, and the warranty isn't anywhere near as good, for what is basically just another Korean car.

Compact: probably Focus right now, based on real-world transaction prices. The Corolla comes close, but the Focus is a bit nicer in some ways and a bit less expensive too. Plus, doesn't Focus have its own special longer-than-Ford warranty? The Civic, while a very nice car, is much more expensive, and has one or two odd features for my tastes. Cobalt is perfectly average, and with prices coming down for the '06 MY, is a good value too. This race for bext value is close.

Midsize: I have to say, the '06 Sonata is pretty impressive. Barring stories like the one above, they seem to have really got their act together, the warranty is still super-long, the interiors are on par with or better than many of the competitors. The drive is decent, I have discovered. I think the cheaper '06 Camrys give it a run for its money right now, only because the new model is a few weeks out and dealers are dishing out rock-bottom prices on '06s. Once that's over, Sonata is a clear winner. I do think the Accord is a good value too, but it is clearly more expensive to get into. And I like the Fusion in some ways, although stuff like partial-power seats makes me wonder why they only went 90% rather than 100. Malibu, uh uh.

Large cars - the Impala is the least expensive in the class, but screams rental and feels cheap even after the revamp. I haven't seen an Azera yet, can't say there. The Avalon is a great value if you are willing to spend more, but are mostly being built with lots of options and packages in typical Toyota style, so are quite expensive. The Lacrosse is kind of icky to sit in, and the rental I drove felt loose - the Impala is a better drive, as is the Avalon. The Lucerne is much nicer inside, quite impressive, although it should be given the price tag. Haven't driven it. The 300 has too much hard plastic for the price, drives well though. Hate, I mean HATE, the lack of outward visibility in that car. Is there a clear value winner in the large car segment? I don't know. Perhaps it is the Crown Vic/Grand Marquis, which I am happy to say I have never been near in person. I bet they sell for cheap though, and if you're going to suffer a cheap interior, at least you should get a cheap price with it.

It's much derided for its styling, but the Amanti might be worth some consideration in the large-car category. And don't forget the 500/Montego, though that might be stretching the "large" category a bit.

I'm with you...I shopped all the sub-compacts and the Scion xA stood out as the best value for the money. It's not the perfect car but for $14,000 you get Toyota quality, really high quality materials and a car that's fun to drive...and yes, you can stuff a mountain bike in it, too. Not a speck of trouble, either, and 33 mpg in the city going up those San Francisco hills. Compared to the Mini I wanted (the fastest one) at $32,000 (!!!!), I felt like I settled for less but not that much less.

Nope. Wishbone front, multi-link rear, piles of interior room, 16 million airbags, power-happy aluminum-block 2.4, short gearing on the manual, all for about $17k. $20k gets you a V6 and 5-speed slushbox.

about the new Sonata is that in the back seat, the wheel wells cut into the passenger cabin something awful. But that doesn't affect the shoulder room, legroom, or headroom measurements, so that shows one way that a car can have good published measures, yet still be cramped in some ways.

I don't think you could get 3 people across comfortably in the back seat of it. But then one of my buddies has an '04 Crown Vic, which is probably the widest passenger car around these days. And you can't get 3 people across comfortably in it, because of the big driveshaft hump, the way the wheel arches cut in a bit, and the contouring of the seats.

I think with large cars, I'd narrow it down to a 300/Charger, Avalon, Lucerne, or 500/Montego as good values, if interior space is a concern and you don't go too hog-wild on features. Although the RWD on the 300/Charger makes the center position of the back seat uncomfortable, so I think of it more as a roomy 4-seater. Avalon and Lucerne seem roomy all around, and both have nice interiors. The 500/Montego is also roomy, and has almost a limo-like back seat. But I find legroom up front to be lacking. More like a 70's pickup truck, with a high seating position, but not a lot of room to stretch out.

I don't consider the Impala to be a large car. Sorry, but if I can't fit in the back seat of it, it AIN'T a large car! But that's just the curse of the W-body...they've always been short on legroom, IMO. Even their old GM-10 ancestors were lacking here.

Well actually the NSX is the best Acura of all time. However the Integra was a awesome seller and a pocket rocket. It lead Honda to where they're at today. Now don't tell me that the perception of Toyexus is better than Honda/Acura. :surprise: Shoot....When your dumping gallons of oil to keep your yuppie Toyexus running at 150K while a honda engine isn't touching a drop then you will realize that guy on those Lexus commercials with his "pursuit of perfection" or (whatever the hawg wash slogan is) was actually referring to a Acura. :P

running at 150K while a honda engine isn't touching a drop then you will realize that guy on those Lexus commercials with his "pursuit of perfection" or (whatever the hawg wash slogan is) was actually referring to a Acura

I have to take issue with you here. They are both very well built cars but Toy/Lex defnitely have the edge in quality.They are both comparable when new, Toyota and especially Lexus holds up better over time than their Honda/Acura counterparts - with the exception of the Teg.

And before this gets too silly, well I had a 1979 Mopar 318 that was running fine at 248,000 miles when the water pump finally went out. And a 1986 Chevy 305 that made it to 192,000 miles when the car got T-boned!

How well you take care of it is really more important than whose name is stamped on the valve cover/engine shroud/whatever.

I'll tell you this much. My friends that are loyal import buyers have camcords. Justin's Camry was in the shop alot and Joe's Accord never broke down and is still running with 200K on the odometer (a few yrs. ago)

Joe baught a BMW 325Ci coupe. I'm not sure if Justins Camry is still running since he traded it in for a BMW 525 a few years back.

As far as Lexus goes my friend Doris's ES300 looks good on the inside and outside but is starting to blow white smoke and eating oil. I believe she said it had 140K on it.

too carried away about Hondas, they are the KINGS of oil consumption as they age. As a huge generalization, I would expect a Honda to start consuming oil sooner, and to consume more oil at any given mileage, than a Toyota. Including Lexi and Acuras.

Once a car is that old, it's fine with me if they use some oil, and despite their oil-drinking proclivities, most really old Hondas (more than 200K miles) still run sweet and smooth despite the miles.

And andre is right - beyond 100K miles, it has a lot more to do with the care and maintenance than it does with the manufacturer, as to which cars are still going strong and which ones have begun to falter. Before the 100K mark, I would say it has more to do with the manufacturer.

But I thought this thread was about new cars and the best values out there?

I would not really call Tiburon or tC a "chick" car no more than a Mazda3, to be honest.You go to any Hyundai fan site, and it is 99% guys, 300-400 members, maybe 10 are women.Chick car? Well, I dunno.... VW's seem to have the most amount of females driving them the one's I see. when a male is driving, it is usually the VW Beetle(new) and Black in color(never any other). Have only seen 2 guys driving any VW.

Tiburon? 75% guys, from what I have seen.tC? Do not know the specific stats, but at work, 2 guys own a tC, and one lady(1 out of 3 owners is female in this instance).

Sonata: it seems to be about 50/50, in my area, but on almost any Hyundai/kia fan site, 90-95% of owners are men.

Go to the service centers, men are there.

Same for Scion . tC, xB, almost always men at the serivce center.Maybe some research, when I get a chance, to find percentages of buyers.

Cobalt, on the other hand, I have only seen 1 guy out of 15 cobalts here. My neighbors got one, for the woman of the household -to drive to work and back- a grey colored model, in fact.

I have seen about 50/50 for mix of buyers, for the Mitsubishi Eclipse , the newer model.

I know more young women buy the Corolla than the tC!If my local Toyota/Scion sales person is correct.

take care, not offense.

PS: I read an article about the 1973 CVCC(now called Civic), and Women were the main buyers, due to the reliability and MPG :surprise: !Wonder if that still holds true?

Your right, I should have used the term "poser". In my day "poser" cars and "chick" cars were the same. Now days the chicks drive all the nicer cars, and the guys all drive wanna'be's with 300 lbs of FX's and a "performance" muffler.

agreed. Case in point: got my wife an 06 Volvo S40 in August of last year, 2 weeks later the fuel pump control module quits. Fixed, no problems, got a loaner etc, no problems since.

Going back, on the day dad picks up his brand new 82 Olds 98, take us to a ball game an hour and a half from home. Engine throws a rod. Learned a few new words that night on the side of the road. He was still an Olds man until the end though. Got rid of his last one, a 1998 "88" last year for a Camry.